Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Hillary Paradox

This piece from the Washington Post points out the difficulties that Hillary Clinton has in quieting the doubts about her, personally, that will almost definitely impede her road to The White House.

Here's the paradox:

The public has long been conflicted about her, softening during her most vulnerable periods. (emphasis added)

In other words, people like Hillary best when she's vulnerable. But to win an election for President -- especially for a woman -- one must come off as strong and commanding, not as vulnerable.

So the persona of strength that Hillary must adopt in order to be a credible contender as a woman is the one least likely to help voters like her. Or, she can do what it takes to be liked -- but then it's far from clear that she'll be perceived as having what it takes to lead the country, particularly in the era of the great war on terror.

There's reason to believe that Hillary knows she's in a box -- and doesn't quite know how to present herself to get out. That might explain her obvious inauthenticity -- perhaps the greatest stumbling block of all.

6 Comments:

I'm not a fan of Hillary -- she's much too right wing for me, but I guess she'll need to be to pull in enough votes to win. But the article goes on to accurately point out that she has the money (and the cameras' attention) to convey her message and her persona, whatever they end up being.

It was reported a few days ago that the religious left already number 50 million. Factions of the religious right are also claiming to be tired of Republicans dangling a carrot at election time and then rolling over and doing nothing on important issues.